Three new CubeSats now in orbit

Soyuz VS14 mission patchSignals have been received from the three CubeSats launched April 25 on Soyuz flight VS14 from the Kourou spaceport in South America.

The three CubeSats were developed by student teams under the European Space Agency (ESA) Education Office “Fly Your Satellite!” program, which is aimed at training the next generation of aerospace professionals. The satellites are OUFTI-1, Université of Liège, Belgium; e-st@r-II, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy; AAUSAT-4, University of Aalborg, Denmark.

The signal from the e-st@r satellite 1200 bps beacon is very weak which may indicate an antenna deployment issue or unexpectedly low transmit power. ESA report the e-st@r team is working to consolidate the radio communication link with their satellite.

OUFTI-1 carries the first dedicated amateur D-Star satellite transponder, further information and frequencies of all three CubeSats are at
https://amsat-uk.org/2016/04/05/d-star-satellite-to-launch-from-kourou/

OUFTI-1 reports http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?cat=321

e-st@r reports http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?cat=84

AAUSAT-4 reports http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?cat=8

Read the ARRL story at
http://www.arrl.org/news/three-esa-fly-your-satellite-program-cubesats-now-in-orbit

ESA Fly Your satellite! CubeSats phoned home
http://www.esa.int/Education/CubeSats_-_Fly_Your_Satellite/Fly_Your_Satellite!_CubeSats_phoned_home